Eggplant Zucchini Muffins

by Michelle on August 29, 2012

Eggplant is one of my favorite late summer vegetables. I grew up eating it parmigiana style (and still do) but I’ve also grilled it, boiled it, mashed and pureed it. What I had yet to do was bake with eggplant. So when this week’s Summer Fest challenge was to submit an eggplant dish, I wondered how it would taste in a sweet baked good. In my research, I came across a post for eggplant zucchini bread, which reminded me of my mother’s recipe for zucchini bread, something I had been planning on making anyway with the plethora of zucchini I picked up at the farmers market. Would eggplant work in that recipe? And furthermore, how would the whole thing hold up in muffin form? I decided to find out.

To my delight, the eggplant adds a subtle savoriness to this sweet bread, er…muffin, recipe. It’s not overpowering at all and the muffins are still moist. I was a bit overzealous in filling my cups so I got 15 huge muffins, but this recipe will easily yield 24. I used a mix of all-purpose and white whole wheat flour to up the health quotient and sunflower seed oil which I’ve started using in place of canola oil. These muffins are perfect for Sunday brunch or an afternoon coffee break!

Eggplant Zucchini Muffins

Yields about 2 dozen muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup eggplant, peeled and grated

1 cup zucchini, unpeeled and grated

4 large eggs

1 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line or grease two muffin tins. Stir dry ingredients together. Add eggs and oil and mix together until combined. Fold in eggplant and zucchini. Fill muffin cups about 2/3s of the way full. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool in tins then store in an airtight container or freeze.

This post is part of Food Network’s Summer Fest, a weekly collection of delicious recipes starring the season’s best bounty. For more ideas on how to prepare eggplant, check out the blogs below!

Hi Lori,
I am not sure about using applesauce, as I’ve never done so with this recipe. But give it a try and let me know how it turns out. These muffins have 10 grams of fat, 222 calories, 30 grams of carbs and 3 grams of protein per serving. So, not my healthiest muffin recipe, but a nice treat once in a while.

About Me
I love to cook. I love to eat. And if friends and family are around to enjoy these pleasures with me, it is a very happy day indeed. But while I’ve been eating all my life, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I began to pay attention to where my food came from... More »